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Re: Wolfson's Way (PH 101)

Hi all-
Mervin writes:
On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, MERVIN KOEHLINGER wrote:

"Teaching and learning are not synonymous. Each requires
maximum effort from the practitioner."

I say, "Nonsense!". Learning requires maximum
effort. Teaching
only involves enough effort to persuade the student to give
maximum effort.

I don't think you can do that with a minimal effort. I
think it takes a lot to get students to give the maximum
effort. Actually, I think it takes my maximum to get the
students to do the minimum required. I know I work
harder today to accomplish my goals than I did 25 years
ago to get the students to work. Maybe it is because
students today seem to have many more opportunities to
do things; when I talk to students, it seems they are
busier than they used to be.


Or, the teacher who gives maximum effort is
depriving the student
of the experience of knowing the need to give maximum
effort.

Maybe we're not all agreed on what teaching is all
about. Or,
maybe, many people who become teachers do so as a means of
expressing their own need to "give maximum effort"
regardless of the effect on their students.
Regards,
Jack


--
Franz Kafka's novels and novella's are so Kafkaesque that
one has to wonder at the enormity of coincidence required to
have produced a writer named Kafka to write them.
Greg Nagan from "The Metamorphosis"
in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>